印西部煤田有限公司将Mana佛教石窟推向毁坏边缘

据《印度时报》报道，印度钱德拉布尔地区具有2000年历史的Mana佛教石窟因印度西部煤田有限公司在此采煤，面临被毁坏的危险。

参观西部煤田有限公司的Mana露天煤矿时，就会发现一座具有2000年历史的佛教石窟被包围在深达100余米的采煤场中。尽管在社会、佛教组织以及地方当局的责难和反对下，西部煤田有限公司没有毁坏石窟，但却在其周围挖了一个很深的采煤场，使得人们无法进入这个历史遗址。印度时报曾多次通过报道提出对这片历史遗址的保护修复问题，但西部煤田有限公司的贪婪仍将这片遗址推向了毁坏的边缘。

据悉，这片古代石窟属于佛教Heniyan派，大约有2000年历史，在公元一世纪的时候是用来进行朝拜和禅修的地方。整个石窟由一块坚固岩石雕刻而成，四个石窟彼此相邻。而西部煤田有限公司已经在遗址周边近300平方米的地下开采出80万吨的煤矿。

开采早期，西部煤田有限公司还留出了一条通往遗址的狭小道路，但现在那条道路也已经被开采了。环绕遗迹的采煤场有100多米深，将此遗迹变成了一个小岛。再也无法进入。尽管西部煤田有限公司承诺保护这片古代石窟，但高强度的爆破声响仍然导致石窟出现裂缝，而现在他们又在石窟附近100米深的地方采煤，将承载石窟的土地分割成了一个小岛，加剧了对这片古代遗址的威胁。迟早有一天，整个小岛将会承受不住巨大压力而坍塌。（编译：子规）

CHANDRAPUR: Those visiting the Mana opencast mine come across a tiny island having 2,000-year-old Buddhist caves standing tall between an over hundred-metre deep quarry. After a hue and cry by the social and Buddhist organisations and objection from the district administration, WCL authorities spared the ancient caves from demolition, but dug up a deep quarry around it literary making the historic site inaccessible. TOI had repeatedly raised the issue of protection and conservation of the ancient site through its reports, but WCL's greed for coal has now pushed the ancient monument to the verge of destruction.

According to historians, the ancient caves belong to the Heniyan sect of Buddhism and are around 2,000 years old. It used to be a place of worship and meditation in the first century AD. The caves got the name Mana from the Nag dynasty of the Mana community that ruled the area in 9th century AD and later accepted Buddhism. Carved from a single solid rock, the four caves, adjacent to each other, come under the area of Hindustan Lalpeth Open Cast (HLOC), a sub-area of WCL. Since the last few months, HLOC has begun excavation of around 300 sq metres of land having around 8 lakh metric tons of coal underneath just near the historic site.

"In the early days of excavation they (WCL authorities) had left a narrow approach road that connected the site with the main land, but now that too has been excavated. The quarry is more than hundred metres deep and surrounds the block of land bearing the ancient caves making it an island, which is not accessible anymore," said Ashoksingh Thakur, Chandrapur chapter convener of Indian National Trust for Art Culture and Heritage (Intach).

Thakur added that the caves were already endangered because of the high magnitude blasting, but now the land bearing the caves has been carved into the island therefore the threat to the Buddhist structure has increased.

"In spite of the assurance given by WCL authorities to preserve the ancient historic structure, the blasting had created several cracks in the ancient caves. Now that coal is being extracted from the foot of island at a the depth of more than 100 metres, some day the entire overhead structure will crumble into the pieces," fears Thakur.